94,000 billion VND is about to be poured into clean energy

It is expected that about 20 wind and solar power projects of domestic and foreign investors will be deployed in Binh Thuan in the coming time.

At the recent investment promotion conference, the People's Committee of Binh Thuan province awarded decisions and received investment commitments from nearly 30 domestic and foreign enterprises in potential fields such as clean energy, tourism and high-tech agriculture. The total initial registered capital is estimated at more than VND126,000 billion.

Of these, the number of projects producing electricity using renewable energy is overwhelming and has an estimated investment capital of about VND94,150 billion, mainly concentrated in Tuy Phong and Ham Tan districts. Notable among these are the solar power plant project of Vietnam Electricity Group, the Son My 1 gas power plant project of a joint venture of French - Japanese investors with a total investment capital of VND49,500 billion (equivalent to USD2.2 billion).

A series of investors are actively looking to Binh Thuan to develop wind and solar power. Photo: Annie Le.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hai, Chairman of Binh Thuan Provincial People's Committee, said that the province's investment attraction structure is clearly shifting towards encouraging the development of clean energy in parallel with key economic sectors, aiming to gradually realize the goal of becoming a major energy center of the country by 2020 with a total capacity of over 12,000 MW.

According to the development plan until 2030, the total capacity of wind power plants will reach 2,500 MW. For thermal power and solar power, the estimated capacity in the coming time will reach 10,000 MW and 3,819 MW, respectively. Currently, Binh Thuan is also actively diversifying the form of energy production. Up to now, the locality has thermal power plants operating on coal and liquefied gas, hydropower, wind power and solar power.

Mr. Hai commented that favorable natural conditions are the most important factor helping Binh Thuan lead the group of localities that comprehensively develop the electricity industry. Specifically, thanks to little rain, the number of hours of sunshine during the year is always at an ideal level and most of the area has an average heat radiation intensity of about 5 kWh per square meter, the locality has many advantages to develop solar energy. Hydropower resources are abundant thanks to the total average annual water volume of about 5.4 billion m3 created by 7 main river basins and 30 large lakes.

However, according to the assessment of Binh Thuan Wind Power Association, despite the huge potential, it is not feasible for the province's wind and solar power plants to contribute to completing the common goal of 800 MV by 2020.

Mr. Bui Van Thinh, Chairman of this association, said that wind power investment projects often take a long time to get investment licenses. After that, investors continue to face the problem of accessing loans, especially preferential capital from the State. Of the three officially operating projects, one project was seized by the bank, one project changed owners, and the most recently operated project also had to save money to pay operating costs, with no reinvestment costs, so it is difficult to talk about capital recovery.

“Over the past 10 years, the country’s wind power capacity has grown by about 160 MW. In Binh Thuan alone, there are currently 19 projects registered for investment and very few of them are officially operating with the regulated grid electricity price of 7.8 cents per kWh. We have less than 3 years to complete the remaining 80% of the plan, but if nothing changes in the near future, with this electricity price, we will not be able to achieve the plan,” said Mr. Thinh.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said he would consider increasing wind power prices in the coming time to support businesses and attract investors to invest in clean energy development in Binh Thuan according to the Central Government's policy.

The head of the Government shared that since the decision on the mechanism to encourage the development of solar power projects in Vietnam was signed, the electricity purchase price at the delivery point increased to 9.35 cents per kWh. Dozens of investors then came to Binh Thuan to explore opportunities for solar power development. This is considered an optimistic signal for the electricity industry, but he suggested that businesses need to have a long-term and sustainable business strategy, saying what they do to avoid the situation of signing contracts but not implementing them.

“The government and investors need to have a vision and improve the quality of planning to avoid conflicting and mutually cancelling industry planning, regional planning and products,” the Prime Minister emphasized, noting that Binh Thuan must simultaneously develop the deep processing industry of titanium into a clean energy source based on the advantage of accounting for 92% of the country’s total ore reserves.

According to VNE